I’m busy time travelling…

My apologies for not being around much, but I’m busy writing my new Martha Wenlock novel. I’m 20k in at the moment and finding myself travelling back in time to the 1600 where Martha Wenlock is kindly introducing me to her world. As you can well imagine it is a different world from ours. Though, in a strange way people of Martha’s time were far more self-sufficient and self-reliant unlike many of us today. Of course, you had to have land to grow your own food, and good supply of fresh water, too. In many parts of the world even today, there are large groups of people who still live as Martha and her generation did.

Witchcraft

“Where’s your black master now, Hag. No magic can save you from good Christian men.” he laughed heartily, believing he had finally driven me from my home.

In our time, there are still people who don’t have access to many of our modern convenience such as fresh water, sanitation, central heating and, of course cars. It wouldn’t take much to turn the clock back to find ourselves living as our ancestors did without all mod cons. This week, the fan on my boiler stopped working, so we had been without hot water, and no heating just as Autumn put in an appearance. The temperature dropped enough to put a chill in the air when I got up in the morning. Normally, the heating would’ve kicked in for a couple of hours.

Back in the 1600, this would be unthinkable. The only heating in the house would be an open fire and this would be used for cooking on, too. In my childhood, the only heating in the house, was an open fire, too. Though, we did have electric lighting and electric cooker and a fridge to stop milk from going off. What we didn’t have was a freezer to store fresh food in. It was the same in Martha’s time. Imagine being so reliant on what you can grow, or the livestock you keep throughout the year, to kill in the winter months to keep you alive

I did some online research and found out what sort of food would have been available, and it was quite surprising. Of course, there wasn’t any convenience food other than pies and bread. These were mainly available in the towns, not the countryside.

Turnips, parsnips, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, onions, leeks, spinach, radishes, skirretHoney used as a sweetener.Apple, pears, plum, dansom, cherries, raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries, strawberriesHazelnuts, walnuts, peas, beans, lentils, garlic, spices and herbs, salt, cloves, nutmeg, Saffron.Chicken, rabbit, hare, duck, pheasant, partridge, songbirds like blackbirds, song thrush, larks, mutton, pig: pigs was the main meat because pigs were cheap and were capable of finding their own food summer & winter. Every part of them were used. Cow tongue, Salmon, Trout, eels, pike, sturgeon, shellfish, crab, lobsters, oysters, cockles, mussels, dace, graylings, and gudgeon.Bread made with wheat, but if the harvest was poor, they would use rye and barley or flour made from beans, peas or even acorns. Milk, eggs, butter and cheese. the blood from slaughtered animals was turned into black pudding: blood, milk, animal fat, onions and oatmeal. Pottage was a soup-stew, cooked in one pot, made from oats that anything was added to, such as turnips, parsnips and leeks. Milk, beer, ale and water, but water from the rivers wasn’t safe to drink so everyone drunk beer and ale, even children

It’s hard to believe there was a time when the British didn’t drink tea, but these are the things you uncover when you step back in time. Did you know only the poor put butter on their food while the rich only cooked their food in butter, so I guess the array of cooking oils you see in the local supermarket wasn’t available.

The books I’m using to do my research with:

The Writer’s guide to Everyday Life in Renaissance England: From 1485-1649 by Kathy Lynn Emerson ISBN 0-89879-752-7Nature’s Way Series: Herbal Teas for Health and Healing by Ceres ISBN 0-7225-0904-9Witch’s Garden: Plants in folklore, magic and traditional Medicine by Sandra Lawrence ISBN-13 978-1-78739-436-0

I must get back to the writing now, and if I come across anything else of interest, I will share it with you.